


A Hand to Hold

by GrumpyJenn



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Friendship, Team as Family, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-01-05 14:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12191994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyJenn/pseuds/GrumpyJenn





	1. A Hand to Hold

"You love her," Fang said as they looked down at Light's sleeping - more like unconscious; the Springs had been really hard on her - form, and Snow shook his head.

"'Course I do. She's my sis-"

"No. You _love_ her."

Snow sighed. He loved them both, always had. But Serah was Serah and Light was Light. She'd never have him, and no matter how attractive she was - and oh boy, she _was_ \- he knew that it wouldn't ever happen. Lightning would have no part of him, nor let him and Serah marry, if he was foolish enough to let his feelings show. Not unless Serah herself suggested it, _and_ convinced her sister. 

Given their current predicament, that was looking less likely by the day. 

Who knew if they'd ever be able to save Serah at this rate... Snow sighed again, looked up at the dark-haired woman smiling her sardonic half-grin at him.

"She's my _sister_."

Fang nodded, once, her face growing serious, and reached out to take his hand. "If you say so."


	2. A Friend to Lean On

"'Course I do. She's my sis-"

"No. You  _love_  her."

Lightning heard the voices - Snow's and Fang's - as though they were very far away. There was a long, _long_ pause, before Snow finally said, in a heavy-sounding voice, "She's my _sister_."

After she woke, and they went on their way, Lightning thought about that pause, a long hesitation on Snow's part.

Hesitant was _not_ a word she associated with Snow Villiers. Headstrong, certainly, stubborn. Even good. But never, _ever_ hesitant; if anything he tended too far in the other direction, prone to jumping in feet first without thinking about the consequences.

So.

Had that long pause indicated that Snow was learning to think before he acted, or spoke, had Nora's death and Hope's reaction made him begin to learn that caution?

Or did it mean that she, Lightning, had finally scared him off? 

She honestly wasn't sure anymore how she felt about that. He had loved Serah, that much was obvious. Serah loved him.

And Lightning was beginning to understand why. Underneath all that brash impulsiveness, Snow Villiers was a decent man. An attractive one, as well, though that didn't really matter. What mattered was that Serah loved him. 

But did he still love Serah, love her enough to stay once they'd rescued her from her crystalline prison? Was he having second thoughts about marrying Serah, even rescuing her?

She needed to know. So she cornered him.

So she _asked_ him. Sort of. Lightning was honest enough with herself to admit that she bullied him into an answer. And because he _was_ a decent person, _did_ love Serah, he told her. Without even objecting much to the bullying.

They stood there, the two of them, her leaning against him, looking up at the sky, toward Cocoon. Toward Serah.

And Lightning knew she always could.


	3. Friends and Family

_"...too stubborn to die..."_

Lightning hoped to hell that was still true, that flippant remark she'd made at Hope's house. Because Snow took a hit and went down, _hard_ , there in the Faultwarrens. 

Damn the man, and damn the Tonberry Trio that got him. They'd defeated the things, and gotten away, gotten a prize from Titan, but Snow...

Ever since Barthandelus had masqueraded as Serah, Snow hadn't bounced back the way he usually did. Usually - maybe it was a l'Cie thing - they all healed the minute a fight was over. It was only when something truly awful, like a fall from a great height, only when that happened that they didn't _heal_. 

But here was Snow, unconscious, bleeding sluggishly from a deep gash in one side - and he was _heavy_ , even for her and Fang - to get him into a good position for treatment.

 _Can't do this without you, brother,_ Lightning thought, _how can I?_

"Hope, Vanille, I need you over here!" _A panicked call for help_ , she thought, _I_ never _ask for help, certainly not like that. Like I'm truly scared_. And then she felt a hand, surprisingly strong, wrap around her forearm.

It was him.

"Don't," Snow said hoarsely, weakly. "They're kids."

"Snow..."

He shook his head and winced. "You do it. They shouldn't have to see this."

Fang stood up, startling Lightning, who had completely forgotten she was there. "I'll head 'em off. You focus..." and here she grinned that cynical grin at the word... "You focus on healing him up." She moved across the clearing to distract the younger ones. Lightning watched her go, watched Sazh help her help them. She sighed and looked down at Snow.

"Come on, brother," she said, and felt her eyes widen as Snow's did. She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

But he didn't mention it. Just slid his hand down her wrist to her hand, held it.

And let her heal him.


	4. Time

Snow Villiers had no idea where - or when - he was. 

He'd faded out of the Sunleth Waterscape after Serah and that Noel had helped him fix the timeline, and then...

But then he popped out of the time stream crux and into... _was_ it Valhalla? Yes, it must be; it was exactly as Serah had described it.

And then his thought was confirmed as he heard something hit the ground _hard_ behind him and he turned...

It was Lightning. Battered, bruised, but Lightning all the same, and Snow dropped to his knees to check on her. _Damn_ , why hadn't he kept up that Medic skill? This'd be a lot easier if he could Heal her, rather than performing crude first aid. She had clearly been through the wars, as bad as or worse than their time as l'Cie, and as he checked her for broken bones - none as far as he could tell - she let out a little hiss of pain and opened her eyes.

Snow was lost in those eyes. They held such _pain_ , and grudging affection, and ill-concealed relief that someone has taking care of _her_ for a change, that Snow just couldn't help himself.

He kissed her.

And she didn't punch him. Or otherwise hurt him.

She kissed him back, just for a moment, and then eased herself away.

"We can't..." Her voice was weak, raspy.

"I know." So was his.

They sat for a moment, and then Snow said, painfully, "We safe here?"

"Not really. No worse than anywhere else in this place though." She sighed and sat up properly, then her eyes widened. "Snow..."

"Yeah?"

"You're... older."

"Yeah."

"How long...?"

"In my time line, just over three years since we..."  He choked slightly, "Since Fang and Vanille..." It hurt to think of them, it always did. That's why he had been in the Waterscape, after all, trying to keep them safe, keep Cocoon from dropping like a stone onto Gran Pulse.

"Oh." She paused, apparently collecting her thoughts. "You have to go..."

"I could stay, help you out."

"Not really," Light said, and smiled up at him. "You're fading now. But remember..."

And then Snow knew no more for a long time.

\----------------------------------------------

 _It must have been a dream_ , Snow thought as he awoke, in yet another place he did not recognize. _She didn't ask about Serah, so it must've been a dream_.

 _It must have been a dream_ , Lightning thought as she awoke, in the crude shelter she had made for herself here on Valhalla.  _He didn't mention Serah, so it must've been a dream_.


End file.
